The Court of Appeal has dismissed Tim Sheahan’s appeal against an order appointing a receiver over Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments due to him, to help satisfy a judgment debt of more than €2 million owed to Allied Irish Banks plc, AIB Mortgage Bank and Everyday Finance DAC.
The appeal concerned the High Court’s 18 April 2018 order appointing a receiver by way of equitable execution over payments due to Sheahan from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Court of Appeal held that Sheahan had applied for the 2017 payment in his personal capacity, and the Department had confirmed that any payment due under that application would go to the receiver under the High Court order.
Sheahan argued that payments were for the benefit of Sheahan Farming Limited under agreements with the company, to which he had leased farmland and payment entitlements. He said the company had received the benefit of the payments and that the receiver’s appointment could cause serious financial harm to it and to Farmco Agri Trading Limited. The respondents argued that Sheahan’s personal application and the Department’s decision meant he had an interest in the payments, regardless of his private contract with the company.
The appeal court said the validity of the lease was not before it: the High Court had made no ruling on that issue, and the parties had treated it as irrelevant to the application. The court held that the lease did not remove Sheahan’s interest in payments made to him. His obligation to pass money to the company was contractual; there had been no assignment of the payments or basis to treat him as holding them in trust. That obligation did not prevent a receiver being appointed over money due to him.
The court also found no evidential basis to conclude that the appointment would be unjust or disproportionate. The judgment debt remained in the region of €2.4 million, other recovery routes had limited prospects, and the alleged harm to the companies and third parties was not substantiated. The court noted that the High Court had received €154,000 from the Department under its order by April 2018; no evidence showed further payments to the bank.
The appeal was dismissed. The court’s provisional view was that Sheahan should pay the respondents’ appeal costs, subject to any party requesting an oral hearing within 14 days to argue for a different costs order. The appeal court did not decide whether the lease was valid or binding on the banks.